Oop, Missed a Spot: Manly Matters and Re-Minders

Hey! So, I forgot to mention that our pal Will Dinski was interviewed recently over at Stubble Magazine. The talk is mostly focused on his recent release, Ablatio Penis. Check it out!

Tomorrow, TOMORROW! Will Dinski is having his even newer book, the self-published At The End of An Action Movie, debut at the MCBA (details and link below!):

MCBA/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Fellowships Series XI November 2, 2012 through January 13, 2013 Opening reception Friday, November 2; 6-9pm

Hope to see you there!

Will Dinski Double Dip

"...this is such a great comic for the run up to the election. Ablatio Penis raised, for me at least, some interesting questions about politics, men and women, sexuality, stereotypes, and above all, whether or not we, as a country, really want the truth from our politicians." -- Courtney Algeo, Paper Darts

We got our first review of Will Dinski's new book in a few days back over at Paper Darts!

This year Will has 2 books out this fall. The first one, was of course Ablatio Penis, which we published. Will's second book, At The End of An Action Movie, which premiers at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, THIS FRIDAY is self-published with the aid of a MCBA/Jerome Fellowship. It's a very very limited run -- 10 copies or something -- all exquisitely hand-made -- it's huge and letter press printed and comes in it's own freaking box!!! Again, this is all crafted, made, printed, by Will Dinksi -- it is AMAZING!! You will want to check this out!! Click the link for details and hopefully we will see you this FRIDAY!!!

Twin Cities Book Fest this SATURDAY

2dc is returning to the MN State Fairgrounds once again this weekend -- this time with Will Dinski repping / pimping / signing his latest and greatest, Ablatio Penis. Both Justin and I (Raighne) will be milling around the show floor and behind the table this time too. I'll be there when the doors open, and Justin will be there when they close, so if you like one of us more than the other, plan accordingly!

As it’s autumn out, we’ll have our fall colors surrounding AP -- expect to see Christopher Adams' 2dc debut comic Period as well as Justin's newest little inscrutable menace, RDCD Fist 1.5.

As always, the usual 2dc party favors will be on hand too, such as the on sale Little Heart (50% off!! just try and dodge that deal), the quiet beauty Startled Maggie, the wordless fable Things You Carry, the dirty Minnesotan flavors of Motherlover, Noah Van Sciver’s Ignatz nominated The Death of Elijah Lovejoy, and so on. So VISIT US already!! You won’t be disappointed, promise. 

FallCON12: Ablatio Penis, Prizon Food, Little Heart (on SALE), High Score

saturdaySATURDAYSATURDAY

At the State Fair Grounds in Minnesota, Will Dinski will have copies of his lastest comics masterpiece, Ablatio Penis, published by yours truly (2DC!) on hand for FALLCON, Minnesota's Comic Celebration!! SO, stop by his table and snag a copy, chat up the guy, will yah!?

copy of Ablatio Penis

Our pal, Ricky Schuster, of Prizon Food fame, will also be tabling at this weekend event. He'll have his usual 2DC published Prizon Food comics, PLUS some other 2DC titles like Little Heart, and High Score.

As a reminder, if you are new to Prizon Food -- buy 'em both together and you shave 2 bones off the asking price! Twice as nice!

Say, did I mention that Little Heart is 50% off leading up to the November election (also of note, this sale extends to retailers as well!)? Well, it is! It's a long-ish sale and a heck of a lot off the cover price -- we really want to continue the conversation as the elections draw near. In that line of thinking we also got a new web series for the book via our Little Heart tumblr that we are seeking submissions for. Please go check it out and submit something!

Lastly, we got this little antho, High-Score, about video games. Ties into Rusel DeMaria's big book of the same name (was a backer reward per his Kickstarter). Pretty rad!

They'll be plenty of friends and artists we adore at the show (Cannon Bros, Sam Hiti, Hannah Blumenreich, maybe Anna Bongiovanni -- heck, I don't KNOW!), so go there, wander around and see cool ship!

ZINES -- MPLS Z-FEST THIS WEEKEND

Local zine and comics show, ZINE FEST [dot] ORG, is having a party at their place, the Powderhorn Park Recreational Center in MPLS on Saturday. Party starts around noon and goes till 6pm. A bunch of Z-Fest’s bestest homies will be there, such as 2D Cloud (we go waay back), King-Cat/Spit and a Half, Uncivilized Books, Eric Schuster of 'Prizon Food' fame, LadyQuest -- which includes Coleman Gilbert & Greer Lawson (who is of course 2DC’s intern extraordinaire), Anna Bongiovanni, Hedwig Vinson, Brett Von Schlosser -- aww cripes, this is tiring -- I’m not gonna list everyone for yah. Just go! Or check the full exhibitor list on their site.

Representing 2dc will be publisher Justin Skarhus and cartoonist Will Dinski (both of whom will have new works seeing their local debuts at the show -- RDCD Fist 1.5 and Ablatio Penis).

2dc elf-friends, Eric Schuster, Anna Bongiovanni, and Greer Lawson will be swimming around the show floor at their own tables as well. I’m pretty sure the amazing poet and zinester Gabrielle Congrave will be in the house too. And heck, for the last hour even I’ll (R. Hogan)  swing on by.

Hrm. Somewhere here I am repeating mys elf.

Anyhow, you, yes --YOU -- are invited to the party. Bring some friends, hang out. Buy some rad zines and xomics! See yah there!!

ps: there are pre and post party events...

Willy D and Where He Draws

Sketch by Will Dinski take from his blog

Will Dinski makes some of the best and sharpest looking mini's out there. Recently, his work space was featured on Jordan Shiveley's Where They Draw. It's a brilliant idea -- and I am excited to see the work spaces of fellow cartoonists (Tom Neely is up there too!). I am always trying to figure out how to make mine more efficient, although I am never good at keeping it up. The unfortunate part of that WTD posting deals with the fact that some ass-hat broke into Will's place, stole his computer and a bunch of his equipment. NOT COOL! There is some silver lining, but to see that you better check out WHERE THEY DRAW!

And if you happen to head over to Will's news + sketchbook blog you can catch a glimpse of his process in the form of a really neat looking gif. You should add a few of those tasty mini's of his to your holiday list for yourself or someone else -- we got 'em in the shop you know, alongside some other cool books.

Hobbies Galore

Okay, deep breattthhh.....lots to cover:


First off, thanks to any and all who found their way to our table at the TC Zine Fest last weekend. I was playing Lonewolf, so I wasn't able to see many people besides my neighbors Anna B. and Eric S., who both had some fun mini's I picked up. I wholly recommend tracking down copies of each, if you can. Will Dinski's new mini, The Old Guys, did well on it's 2dc debut, which was good to see. I did manage to run over to Tom K.'s Uncivilized books table to pick up his new Gabrielle Bell Mini, as well as a couple of solid choices from the always polite John P. and his Spit and a Half distro, on tour now! Besides an overactive child (even when the Geirdoz aren't present, they seem to find our table) and her little ugly dog who was dangerously close to besmirching the last copy of Nic's You Can't be Here I had on hand, a good time was had by me. Nice job Lacey, here's to the 2012 show!


Onward and upward, we have our still newish and awesome 2dc (and NOW Fantagraphics) cartoonist Noah Van Sciver on his way to the city by the bay for APE this weekend, right alongside Joseph Remnant, who was kind enough to share table space with Noah and by extension, 2dc. Noah will have some of our more travel-ready 2dc books on hand, in addition to 2009 Isotope winning Covered In Confusion by Will D., not to mention his other thoughtfully crafted mini's, both old and new. This will of course all be accompanied by Noah's standard spread of Blammo's and other Van Sciver ephemera, such as his new mini, Dueling, which is just a taste of what's to come in Noah's forthcoming book from Fantagraphics:

Thats'anice'acover'a

As I've already mentioned multiple times already, Will Dinski's new mini is officially out in the world, and you can make the moves on getting your copy over at our online shop, in addition to a few other choice releases Will decided to have us distro for him. As with all of Will's work, he does limited runs, and these won't be available in shops, so unless you want to meet us in the flesh, get over there!


Now for the big-tent items. Vincent Stall/King Mini's first work with 2d Cloud, Things You Carry, is officially off to the presses! After pouring over the files and proofs (thanks Raighne and Vincent), everything should be in place and this will be one fine, fine book come October. We were hoping for the book to have a preview launch at Vincent's new show going up at the CO gallery 10/8, but some fine-tuning will probably push it back a little bit, possibly to the Rain Taxi Book Festival, possibly to an event all its own, details will be forthcoming. I know both Raighne and I are very excited and honored to be working with Vincent, given his reputation both in the sequential arts as well as his numerous other accolades and achievements. Below is a sample from Vincent's upcoming show of the same name at the CO gallery:

Last, but in no way least, we have just begun our push to get our other big 2011 release out the door in time for MIX: Motherlover. I can say that I've read this book multiple times already, both for copy editing purposes and in earlier permutations (for Nic's pieces anyway), and all of the work in here was already solid. Now, with a few minor editing choices by Raighne and I to "You Can't Be Here" so Nic's great pacing shines to its full extent and some of Raighne's as always stellar color work, we really have something of interest on our hands. Rob Clough has been gracious enough to put 2dc in context with the Minneapolis comics scene and beyond, as well as expound upon what makes the Holden Bros. and Nic's comics  so oddly compelling by providing a foreword, all of which can be read here, which sits below the following video from the kickstarter: 

We're about a quarter of the way there already (huge THANKS to those who have already shoved numbers our way!), but to keep the momentum going we'll need YOU to find it within yourself to bring this book the attention it deserves. We have quite a few worthwhile incentives tied to each price level, some of which I'll be making sure I snag a copy of before they're gone, so make that hard for me to do and drop the coinage!

Alright, another night of little sleep at the 2dc abodes. Show up to Vincent's show if you're able, we'll be there!

Reminder: 2DC2011TCZF

Before the day draws too near, just one more reminder that the Twin Cities Zine Fest is occurring this Saturday, the 24th. With Lacey taking the reins for the first time, there are a few changes, all of which I'm (Justin) looking forward to: a later start time (Noon), a new location (Powderhorn Park building--3400 15th Ave. S.) and a little bit different approach to the scheduling (Lacey describes it as a three-ring circus). We'll have copies of Will Dinski's new mini The Old Guys on hand for the first time, not to mention the usual gaggle of 2dc books. I know a couple of 2dc cohorts (Eric Schuster, Anna Bongiovanni) will have new mini's debuting at the show as well, which only sweetens the pot. There are a few other cartoonists/distros/labels of note that will be there as well, but I'm going to leave it up to you to discover them yourselves between 12-5 this Saturday. 


Not 100% related, but I'm putting out the call for an unofficial after-party spot: Skoal Kodiak will be dropping their first load (records) release the very same night at the Eagle's Club in the Seward neighborhood. These boys don't disappoint and Load has its own history of putting out records by stellar cartoonists (Lightning Bolt--Brian Chippendale), so this sidetrack has come full circle.


No excuses, see you Saturday.

Ganked

Ha! I think the last time I used that word was when I was 12 or so and would bike to Target every day after school with my friend Thien-Mihn (I don't remember how to spell his name -- it's a mystery that I can spell my own as my spelling is indeed that atrocious. Maybe you've noticed?). We would go there purely to steal comic book cards. What put a stop to my early years of thievery was that I was hit by a car -- which at the time I was pretty sure was an act of god telling me to knock it off or something.

Anyways, this image was ganked from Noah Van Sciver's blog. It's a preview of a newsprint comic that he is splitting with Nic Breutzman AND that we are publishing early next year. The title of Noah's story is the The Cows Head and is based on some folklore. Noah has another preview of a short story that we are publishing next year titled The Lizard Laughs. That story is going inside a new anthology that we are starting sometime in 2012. I'll be talking more about that at a future date. To see more cool stuff that Noah is up to, like 1999 (put out by new comics publisher, Retrofit) check out his blog.

Before the month is out I will be adding a small distro section on the blog as we have a few of Will Dinski's gorgeously designed and illustrated mini's that we'll be selling direct. Speaking of which, Will just finished a new one in collaboration with Mark Ehling. The story is called The Old Guys and will be made available in two formats -- one, as a short in the literary journal, The Nashville Review, and two, as a very limited mini, which you can take a gander at above. In the interim, hit up Will's blog for details. I'm pretty sure these handsome mini's will be making it to the aforementioned distro section of the site in the near future.

Oh and before I go, Will is designing a little comic to fit squarely on our new business card. That ought to be "out" in time for Vincent Stall's Things You Carry launch this October.